Register mechanism for indicating instruments.



mmm.

REGISTER MEGHAHIEY Pmi IEDUTIYG IEE'EEUEIEETS.

APPLIOA'EIGE E'XLED APR.5,1909.

961:;3559 Patent@ 5mm@ M, im@

'lUN ITE@ SAZS PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK F. KINNEY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNII ASSIGN- LKENTS, TO MINERALLAC ELECTRIC COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORA- TION OF ILLINOIS.

REGISTER IECHA NISE FOB Application filed April To all whom it may concern:

Bc it known that l, FRAN-ii l". liJNJRi', citizen ofthe United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of (lool: and State of `illinois, have invented a ceitain new and useful Improvement. in Register Meehanisms for indicating instruments, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and. exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming apart of this specification.

lily invention relates to electrically operated register mechanisms for indicating instruinents.

Although rimarily intended for use in connection with electrical measuring instruments, it is obvious that the .register meclianism may be applied. to various kinds of summation instruments in which the movable part is actuated proportionately to the amount of the particular force or agent 'to be measured.

For the )urpose of best illustrating my invention, llhave shown the same in connection with the movable armature of an electrical measurin instrument. It is well known that in tic ordinary form of these devices, the registering or indicating mechanism is directly connected to and driven by the armature through suitable wearing. According to my invention, the. indicating mechanism may be situated at any distance from the meter itself, and is actuated by electromagnetic means, whose circuit is priinarily controlled by the rotation of the armature, the ad'ustment being sut-li that the actuations of tlJiis indicating mechanism are proportional to the amount of rotation of the armature. The circuit of the electroinaguet is controlled hy two circuit closers, one of which is directly operated hy the ineter armature, while. the other is operated hy the electromagnet, and serves at. the same time as the actuating ineinher of the indicating device. In the particular embodiment hert-in illustrated, this second circuit. closer consists of a ratchet wheel havin associated therewith properly arranged spring contacts for closing and opening the energizing circuit of thel electromagnet. The armature of this magnet actuates, when attracted, the ratchet. wheel, at the same time breakin the circuit when the end of the, stroke has een Specification oi Letters Entrant.

Y C reached. though the contacteoi the XND'ICATING INSTRUMENTS.

'ltatented Julie 1d, Serial 488,028.

cireui; closer Should remain together. lt might very readily happen that the armau ture would stop at the time just when the contacts of the circuit closer, which is directly connected with the armature, remained in closing position. Now, were it; not for the circuit closer operated by the electromagnet, the circuit would, under such condition, remain clomd through the windof the ma iet until the meter had been started up again, which might not occur for hours, and perhaps for days. Such an arrangement would never lind a place in actual use. This objection is completelyr overcome by the novel mechanism which I have. devised, and one form of which is shown in the drawings, wherein- Figure l is a general View of my invention used. in connection with an electric meter; leig. 2 is a View showing the arma-- ture in its` attracted position, after having actuated the ratchet wheel one step; Fig. Il is a front View of the numeral wheels, Showing the ratchet Wheel which actuates the same.

The shaft l carries the armature disk 2 of conducting material, such as co per. I have not deemed it necessary to s ow tho field magnets that act u n this armature, for the reason that this is a detail which is Well understood by those conversant with electric meters. Although the armature as shown is one that is commonly used-in alternating current meters, I would have it un* derstood that my invention is by no means limited to this species of meters. The shaft l is provided with the Worin 8, which engages with the ear wheel 4 fixed upon one end of the sha 5 The other end of this shaft. carries the disk 8 of insulating material, having the metallic sefrment 7, which is electrically connect/ed Witi the collector ring 8. A pair of brush arms 9 and l() engages the eriphery of the disk to make contactl witlii the segment 7 ss the disk is rotated by the armature. A contact mem-- ber l0' bears upon the collector ring 8 as the same is rotated. A. conductor 1l oor.- nects the brush arm 9 with the spring coi".n tact l2, while the conductor 13 connects .i brush arm IO with the siring Contact is The spring contacts 12 an( M are associated with the ratchet wheel 15, made of a suitable conducting material, and firmly timed.

i 1, the spring contact 12 wi upon the shaft 16. Beside the ratchet wheel 15 is situated the collector ringr 17, in electrical connection therewith. A Contact member 18 is arranged to bear upon the collector ring 17. A. series of properlyarranged numeral wheels 18 are mountedu n the shaft 16, to be actuated by the rate et wheel 1,5. For the sake of simplicity and clearness, I have not attempted to show all of the details that are .found in counters havin decimally arranged numeral wheels for t e reason that such details are well known in the art. Thus, for instance I have not shown the carry-over devices that are associated with the numeral wheels.

The ratchet wheel 15 is actuated by the electrom et 19, whose armature 20 has connectedtherewith the arm 21, whose free end is arranged to rest ainst one ofthe teeth of the ratchet whee when the armature is in its Withdrawn osition in order to be read to actuate e ratchet wheel when the e ectromagnet is energized. One end of the magnet windin is connected to the contact member 18, t rough the conductor 20', while the other end 'of the winding is connected to the leading-in wire 21, through the conductor 22. Contact member 10 is connected to the other leading-in wire 23 through the conductor 24.

I`he operation of my invention will now be apparent: As the armature is rotated under the influence of the ma ietic field cre-A ated by the field ma et wiiidin of the meter the disk l6 winbe rotat and the metallic segment 7 will come alternately under the brush arms 9 and 10. Let iis assume that the segment 7 is in contact with the brush arm 9, while the other parts are in the position in which they are shown in Fig. 1. Circuit may now be traced :is follows: from the positive wire 23 to the conductor 24, contact member 10, coiiector ring 8, segment 7, brush arm 9, conductor 11 spring contact 12, throughl the ratchet wheel 15, collector ring 17, contact member 18, conductor 20, through the winding 19 of 'the electromagnet, conductor 22 and the return wire 21. This will ener ize the electromagnet, and the armature 2 will be drawn up into the position in' which it is shown in Fig. 2. During this movement of the armature, the arm 21, by virtue of its e agement with the tooth 250i the ratchet w e-el, will move the lutter into the position in which it is shown in Fig. 2. The arm 21 will now rest upon the tooth 26, withits free end still against the tooth25, so that it forms a positive lock against any. further forward movement of the ratchet wheel. As a precaution against backward movement of the ratchet w ieel, the sprin contacts 12 and 14 are so arranged that w en the armature is in its .withdrawn position ns shown in Fig. il rest with its free senses end against one of teeth.. When the position of the ratchet wheel is such that the spring contact 12 rests in one of the cutaway rtions 28, then the spring contact 14 willpgerform this locking function in the same manner. In this way,L the spring con` tacts 12 and 14, besides acting as collecting devices, may perform the duty of locking dogs for the ratchet Wheel. As soon as the arm 21 has reached the limit of its travel, the tooth 27 will pass from under the sprinf contact 12, thus breaking the circuit throu ii the electromagnet before the se nient 7 will have passed from under the brus arm 9. In order that the spring contact 12 may not come into engagement with the nexttcoth after its disengagement from tooth 27, alternate ones of the teeth ore cut awa at 28, in order to accommodate the free en of the spring arm 12 when the parts are in the sition as shown in Fig. 2, or the free eri of the spring contact 14 when the parte are in the position as shown in Fig. l, where the armature is in its withdrawn position. A stop 29 holds the free end of the spring contnct 12 about midway in the cutaway rtion 28, as shown in Fig. 2, while a stop prevents tlie spring contect 14 from closing the circuit through the next succeedin tooth after it has broken engagement with t ie preceding tooth, as shown in Fig. 1. The insulating piece 31 forms a support for the arm 21 when the armature is in its withdrawn position. With the arm 21 as shown in Fig. 2, the stop 32 prevents the arm from bein raised out of contact with the ratchet whee As soon as the electromagnct is deenergized, ,the armature is retracted by the spring 33 against the stop ZA. The parte are so proportioned that every time the ratchet wheel is actuated by the electromagnet, the corresponda .actuation of the indicating wheels 18 wi be proportional to and representative of the amount of rotetion of the armature, since the last preceding actuation of the ratchet Wheel. In this way, the numeral wheels may be made to indicate ampere hours or watt hours. Or, if the invention be e plied to measuring instruments other than e ectrical, as, for instance, gas meters or water meters, the connections ma be such that each ste by step movement o the indieating wheel will represent so many cubic feet of gas or so many gallons of water. course, it is not necessary that the ratchet wheel be connected with indicatin .members such as the numeral wheel 1g Any other suitable kind of indicating device may i'io be used in connection with the ratchet wheel T,15, as, for instance, agiointer moving over s properl raduated ial It wil apparent, from the above, that the circuit cioser which is driven directly b the armature and has for its moving art this disk 6, is altogether relieved ci? the sk control senese of breakin the circnit through the electroma net. igor this reason, the brush errns 9 an( 10 need but make very light contact with the segment 7. Otherwise, were the circuit broken between the segmenti1 and the brush arms 9 and l0. the inevitable sparking at the moment of breeki. would soon destroy the parts. The ratchet wheel 15, however, breaks the circuit so suddenly when the arm 12 snaps ofi' the engaging tooth into the cutaway portion 28 of the next succeedin tooth, that the sparking is but slight am? of brief duration. In the cese of the disk 6, its movement mi ht. Sometimes be so slow that if the circuit nid to be broken by the segment 7 and the associated contacts t) and 10, the sparkin would be so rolonged that the parts Woul be destroyed y a single interruption of the. circuit. As for the ratchet wheel 15, however, its opera tion is always the same step b f step movement, no matter how slot',1 or now fast the movement of the disk 6. z

Although I have set forth my invention h v illustrating and describin a specific embodiment thereof', I would inve it understood that many of the details may be varied without departing from the scope of my invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what claim as new and desire to secure by le@ ters Patent of the United States is:

1. The combination with the rotatable member of a measuring instrument, of a circuit-closer operated by said member, an electromagnet. provided with an armature, e disk adapted to be actuated by said armature when the electromagnet is energized, a pair of permanentl separated contacts associated with said disk to exi-migo the same und form therewith a seconda circuit-closer, an enerfgizing circuit for said electromagnet ed by saidcircuit-closers, and an indicating device operated by said disk` proportionntel 'to the amount of actuation of seid rotate le member.

rllhe combination with the rotatable member of a. measuring instrumcnt,'of a circuit-closer operated by scid member, an clectro-ma iet rovided with an armature, a rotatab e disiz ada ted to be actuated by seid armature when t e electro-magnet is energized, a pair of permanently separated contacts associated with said disk to 'form there with n second circuit-closer, an ener izing circuit for said electromagnet controled by said circuit-closets, end numeral-Wheels operated by said second circuit-closer proportionately to the amount of actuation of said rotatable member.

3. The combination member of a meaeurin instrument, of a circuit-closer operated :y said member, an electromagnet provided with en ermatnre, e

with the rotatable numeral wheels connected with said ratchet wheel and actunted thereby proportionately tothe amount of actuation o" said rotatabe member.

d. The combination with the rotatable member a measurin instrument, of e comxnntsitor provided with a metallic segment connected with Said rotatable member lo be operated thereby, a pair of brush-arms engaging said commutator, an clectromagnet hnvinof an armature, e. rintchet wheel operated by said armature. when the electromagnet is energized, a air of spring contacts associated 'with said ratchet wheel and arranged to come into and out of enga ement with the toet-lr thereof es the rote et wheel is operated, the teeth of said ratchet wheel being such that said spring contacts engage the same alternately, an electrical connection between each of said spring contants and said brush-arms, an en cuit for said electromngnet, onesi e o seid circuit beingY permanenti seid metallic segment whi o the other side is permanently connected with one end of the winding' of said electromagnet, the other end of winding being connected. with said ratchet wheel, whereb the circuit through seid electromagnet is closed alternately across said connections and en indicetinr device actuated by said ratchet wheel proportionatel to the amount of :actuation of seid rotate le member.

5. The combination with the rotatzibie member of e measuri instrument, of a circuit-closer operated said member, en electromagnct rovidedI with un armature, e retchet whee operated by said armature when the electro-magnet is enerimd, said ratchet wheel being,` provided wit teeth of which alternate ones have cutawg' portions, s pair of s ring contacts associat with said teeth so t at when one contact engagea a tooth to close the circuit the other contact is clear of the ratchet wheel by resting in one of said cutaway portions, whereb the circuit is closed alternately through sei( contoets, en ener izin circuit-for said electroma et contro led y said circuit-closer and sai ratchet. wheel with its nwocieted contacts, and an indicating device actuated by said ratchet wheel proportionatel to the amount of actuation of said rotate le member.

6. The combination with the rotstebe crine-,ture of electric meter, of comme zmcirconnected with 'intox' driven thereby, an @ioctl-*o-mi, net rovided with an armature, ai disk a apte to be actuated by the mgnet-mmture wiieii the electro-m et is energized, circuit-com nections where y said commutator and said disk contini the circuit of the. electro-magnot, and sin indicating dvico operated by said disk pro mrtionntely to the amount of actuation of t ie meter-amature.

7. The combination with the rotatabc armature of an electric meter, of commutator driven thereby, an @lectin-ma et rovided with mi ni'mature, a. disk stapten to be actuated by tho magnet-armature when the electro-ma ct is energized, a shaft upon which said dis i is rigidi mounted, circuitconnections whncby sai oommntnim' sind said disk contmi the circuit of .time @ioctl-omagnet, and, a net of numeral-wheels actu-` whereby ssid contact-mmbcrs'contioi the circuit of the eicctrwmgnt, sind intimiting device operated pro rtionataiy to the amount of actuation of t e menzioni-matin?.

9. The combination with the rotatable mcmbsn of measuring instrument, o a circuitfciooct optare-.ted by wid member, un oicctiomcgnct provided with an nriniitiiro, a second circuit-closer iidagitcd to be omitted by said armature when tno eieotiomsgnot ia ener ized, said second circnitfcioaci coznpiris ing t te@ contm incmberzi, two of mici om@ tact members being pcrmmontiy sepnmtcd and adnptoi to niernntciy engage tho tiiiiri contnct member, an ener iny circuit :ffoi' @nid cioctxomn et contro led: i' said oircnit-cios'ais, on an inciicaiting` @vice octuated 'b mitiscoond circuit-climat' piropo?- tionnte 1y to the amount of actuation of sind rotatabi@ member.

in 'Wi'tnefs whereof. I 'have benannt@ @ignoti my mimo thi@ Emi day of April, D. 190i).

FRANK F. EHNE Y.

Witnwos:

A. A. THoMA, Finitura EF, Ifxfmmn 

